London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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St Martin-in-the-Fields 1862

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Martin-in-the-Fields]

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31
deaths from diseases of the heart, 13 from
ion, 21 from other diseases of the lungs, 7 from
diseases of the organs of digestion, and 2 from those
of the kidneys. All these do not vary materially from
the usual average. 41 of the deaths occurred in
children under the age of 5, 26 in persons above the
age of 60, leaving 59 at the intermediate ages; of
???hese 16 occurred at the ages of 5 to 20, 17 at the
ages from 20 to 10, 26 from 49 to 60, 22 from 60 to 80,
and 4 upwards of 80. Consumption is the largest
destroyer of human life at what may be considered its
most active stage. Diseases of the brain and nervous
system and of the heart arc also very destructive in
the middle period of life. Many of these diseases
are induced by that unsparing application to business
and the overwork consequent on the competition of
the age in which we live.
During the whole quarter I have found the gas
supplied by the Equitable Company above the average
illuminating power which the Gas Companies are
bound to supply. An Argand burner, consuming
5 cubic feet per hour, has given a light equal to
12½ sperm candles, and from a batswing, consuming
4 cubic feet, the equivalent light has been equal to
8½ candles.